ORDER :

1. In pursuance to the directions of this Court, Smt. Alka Sirohi, Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, New Delhi has filed a comprehensive affidavit, a copy of which was handed over to us by the learned Additional Solicitor General in Court, which is taken on record. A serious endeavour has been made to give a clear answer to all the queries raised by us in our last order. Learned Counsel for the petitioner, the Dealer's Associations and the State Governments may file reply to this affidavit within a week from today.

2. In reply to the Court's query why the facilities of the Public Distribution System be not discontinued for people who are Above Poverty Line, a comprehensive reply has been filed in which it is mentioned that after meeting the total allocation of the population in the categories of Antyodaya Anna Yojana and Below Poverty Line, the remaining foodgrains are allocated to the States and the Union Territories for distribution to Above Poverty Line population. That is precisely what the Court had in mind when the previous order was passed.

3. It is also indicated in the affidavit that the Union of India making allocation to the States @ 35 Kgs. per family. In reply to the Court's query that to avoid pilferage and corruption there must be total computerisation of Public Distribution System on a priority basis. The Court also observed that the Union of India must prepare a common software for all the States. It was also indicated in the previous order that the Union of India may consider computerisation in consultation with the specialised agencies like the Unique Identification Authority of India or any other agencies. In reply to that, it is mentioned that the Department of Food and Public Distribution has taken up several initiatives for computerisation of Targeted Public Distribution System (for short ‘TPDS’).

4. A policy scheme of computerisation of TPDS has been approved in August, 2009 to be implemented in 3 districts in each of the 4 pilot States i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Delhi and piloting of food grain bag tracking in one district in Chhattisgarh. A pilot scheme on smart card based delivery of TPDS commodities has also been approved for the Union Territory of Chandigarh and Haryana. Integrated Information System for Food Grains Management (IISFM) is an application developed by the National Informatics Centre for Food Corporation of India (FCI). The project aims at putting an online management system in place to give information about foodgrains management in FCI at any point of time.

5. In the affidavit it is also indicated that implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions across the country on a large scale covering 35 States/UTs, more than 600 districts, their sub- divisions/block/tehsil level godowns and over 5 lakh fair price shops across a diverse operating environment is quite complex. The processes and practices, skill sets and e- readiness vary from State to State and even from district to district within a State. It is also mentioned in the affidavit that the Department of Information Technology, National Informatics Centre and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and other experts, a task force headed by Director General, National Informatics Centre has been set up on 09.08.2010 which will include representatives of Department of Information and Technology, UIDAI, Department of Food and Public Distribution, Food Corporation of India and Food Secretaries of selected States/UTs as members. The Task Force is entrusted with the responsibility of working out the modalities for integration of the existing projects and also to suggest as to how UIDAI will be eventually leveraged.

6. The Union of India, in principle, has agreed to the complete computerisation of the entire Public Distribution System which means computerisation from the godown of Food Corporation of India to the ultimate b